Valentino

Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani, known worldwide simply as Valentino, was an Italian fashion designer who made high glamour feel inevitable. Born on 11 May 1932 in Voghera, Lombardy, the second child of Mauro Garavani, director of an electrical supply company, and Teresa, he grew up with older sister Wanda in relative comfort and a household that could indulge an early obsession with clothes and drawing. He was named after Rudolph Valentino. An aunt, Rosa, and local designer Ernestina Salvadeo steered him toward fashion long before Milan and Paris finished the education.

In 1949 he studied fashion sketching at Milan's Santa Maria Institute, then moved to Paris for the École des Beaux-Arts and the Chambre Syndicale school. He won an International Wool Secretariat competition and entered the atelier of Jean Dessès; later he worked with Guy Laroche after Laroche left Dessès. By the late 1950s he returned to Italy. With his father's backing he opened his own salon on Rome's Via Condotti in 1959 and presented a collection whose red cocktail dress (carmine mixed with scarlet and a hint of orange), later remembered as the Fiesta dress, became the seed of rosso Valentino, the house's trademark red. Elizabeth Taylor, in Rome for Cleopatra, ordered a white column for the Spartacus premiere, an early Hollywood seal of approval.

On 31 July 1960 he met Giancarlo Giammetti at Café de Paris on Via Veneto. Their romantic relationship lasted roughly a dozen years and ended in 1972, but their business partnership and lifelong companionship remade Italian fashion. Giammetti became the commercial architect of Valentino S.p.A. while Valentino remained the creative face. Florence's Pitti presentations in 1962 opened an international stage. Jackie Kennedy discovered the house in the mid-1960s (often dated to 1964 via Gloria Schiff) and became a devoted client through mourning years and, famously, for her 1968 wedding to Aristotle Onassis. The late-1960s white and "no color" collections and the trademark "V" logo cemented a look of bows, lace, embroidery, and feminine high polish that John Fairchild and later documentary culture nicknamed the "last emperor" and "sheik of chic."

Ready-to-wear followed: Milan in 1969, New York and Rome shops in 1970. Clients spanned Queen Paola of Belgium, Princess Margaret, Audrey Hepburn, Farah Pahlavi, Diana Vreeland, and Princess Diana. Decades later Oscar red carpets still spoke Valentino: Julia Roberts in a vintage 1992 black-and-white gown in 2001; Cate Blanchett in a yellow one-shoulder look in 2005. From the early 1980s Valentino's long-term partner was Vernon Bruce Hoeksema, a former model who became a house executive; Britannica notes Hoeksema was with him at the end. Valentino never married and had no children. He and Giammetti shared a constellation of homes (Rome, Wideville, New York, London, Gstaad, Capri) and a famously pampered menagerie of pugs.

Corporate history tracked luxury's conglomerate age. In 1998 Valentino and Giammetti sold to HdP for about US$300 million while Valentino stayed as designer; Marzotto bought the company in 2002; Permira acquired Valentino Fashion Group in 2007. On 4 September 2007 he announced retirement with Giammetti. Final ready-to-wear came in Paris that October; the last haute couture show, on 23 January 2008 at the Musée Rodin, ended in a standing ovation with models including Naomi Campbell and Claudia Schiffer. Matt Tyrnauer's documentary Valentino: The Last Emperor (2008) fixed the public myth. He cameoed as himself in The Devil Wears Prada (2006). After retirement he designed for select clients and opera, including Sofia Coppola's 2016 Rome staging of La Traviata. Ownership later passed to Qatar's Mayhoola (2012), with Kering taking a minority stake in 2023. Creative successors included Alessandra Facchinetti, then Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli, later Alessandro Michele.

Valentino died on 19 January 2026 at his home in Rome, aged 93. The Fondazione Valentino Garavani e Giancarlo Giammetti said he passed away peacefully, surrounded by the love of his family. Lying in state was held at Piazza Mignanelli 23 on 21-22 January; the funeral followed on 23 January at the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels and Martyrs. Mourners included Anne Hathaway, Anna Wintour, Tom Ford, and Donatella Versace. BBC reported cremation with ashes interred at Flaminio Cemetery (Prima Porta); Wikipedia describes burial in a shared Garavani-Giammetti family chapel there. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called him an undisputed master of style and an eternal symbol of Italian high fashion. His philosophy stayed simple: he loved beauty, and he wanted women to look sensational.